The third "person" in the room?
Is not a flesh and blood person, but a 15 x 8 cm, flat, hard thing that most of us never have more than an arm's length away. Research shows that 80% of adults almost always have their cell phone within reach. This product is you 2.0, with access to everything about you. Your buying habits, your friends, sexual contacts past and present, where you are today, what you read, what you listen to, etc. Not only that, it is a constant source of impressions, entertainment, information... the list is endless.
What does mobile addiction really mean for us? What does it mean for us as individuals and for us in relation to others?
I am just listening to the book The Balance of Happiness by Dr. Rangan Chatterjee, I am halfway through and think it is one of the better books on the subject that I have come across. In the last chapter he talks about the cell phone. The mobile, the mobile, the mobile. This little thing that is constantly with us. He points out that our mobile addiction is largely due to the fact that it is created by some of the world's smartest people, engineers and tech brilliant people in, for example, Silicon Valley. They do everything to get us addicted, to want more, to see more, to buy more, and we find it hard to resist. Of course we do, and most apps are designed in the same way. The book mentions Dr. Ashley Whillans (link), she has coined the term confetti time, our phones chop up time into confetti. This is true at work as well as at home with your partner, your family or time with yourself.
Let's say we were to spend 15-20% less time on our phones, that would mean we have 15-20% more time to take in real life impressions. Talking to your partner, listening to birds, reading a book, being 100% present with your child. I would dare to say that it would be raising the quality of that time of your life.
And if I were to say that the mobile phone is one of the most effective contraceptives of our time, would you agree with me? By scrolling through the evening instead of talking, making time for deep or shallow conversations, closeness and intimacy. I firmly believe that many of us increase the distance to closeness by having the "third person" in the room all the time.
I have a question, is the last thing you touch in the evening yourself, a potential partner or possibly your cell phone?
Cecilia, CEO and co-founder of Aima Sense